They’ve found fame on social media by focusing on Charlotte. What are their secrets?
Is there a secret to becoming a social-media influencer? To building a brand that develops a significant following on TikTok, or Instagram, or YouTube, or Facebook — or all of the above?
The answer is ... not necessarily the same for everyone.
But we asked five local influencers with hyper-Charlotte-specific accounts to share some thoughts on the niches they’ve carved out for themselves; on the posts that helped them break big; about why they think their content has connected with audiences; and about what makes Charlotte such a great place to try to do what they trying to do.
Tha Daily Special guy: Cory Wilkins
Who he is: A 34-year-old native of small-town Georgia who moved to Charlotte to work in the software development field in 2017. The following year, he created a website that he intended to use to remind himself and his friends when and where to take advantage of daily specials at local restaurants and bars ... but he eventually shifted his focus to social media — and to a different concept.
Socials: @thadailyspecial on Instagram (144,000 followers) and TikTok (141,000 followers).
Goal: “I created the Instagram to go with the website, and originally the Instagram was gonna be me posting, ‘Go here for 50-cent wings on Wednesdays, or, ‘Go here for Taco Tuesday for $2 tacos.’ But it turned into me posting where I was eating ... and people would be responding and engaging and sharing out the posts a lot. Because the places I liked to go weren’t being covered a lot by traditional Charlotte media. A lot of Black-owned places. A lot of minority-owned places in general. ... (So the goal became) creating food content and just letting people know where to go eat.”
Growth spurt: “(In July 2021), The Premier Chef then was right up the street from Camp North End. He just had a grill in a parking lot, and there were maybe five people in line. I was there and saw him open up the grill, pull off a turkey leg in foil, and unwrap it; then as he picked it up, the meat fell straight off of the bone, with no effort. I was like, ‘Hey, let me record you doing that.’ So I did. And that’s when I was first starting to do videos. I didn’t even know what I was doing. But I put together a video, and it went super-viral on TikTok. At the time, I had maybe 200 followers on TikTok. I think that video ended up with 2 million-plus views.”
Preferences: “As a consumer, I like TikTok better, because their algorithm is better at feeding me what I want to see. But as a creator, I like Instagram better for its consistency. That comes into play with working with brands, because I know most of my posts on Instagram will do, say, at least 50,000 views, versus on TikTok, it might do a thousand, or it might do 50,000, or it might do 500,000. You just never know. On TikTok, it’s a shot in the dark.”
Sweet spot: “The cool thing about North Carolina is it is so nutrient-rich, and has so many farm-to-table options. We have a ton of farmers here, different soil types, everything from high elevation to sea level. So North Carolina gets to grow a ton of different things, which makes the local food scene flourish and be very unique. And then the growth of Charlotte in general has allowed so many new restaurants to come.”
— Théoden Janes
The real estate girly: Maceon McCraken
Who she is: A 28-year-old broker Realtor in the Charlotte area for The Allen Tate Company who describes herself as a “Charlotte tour guide and your real estate bestie.”
Socials: @maceon.mccracken on TikTok (73,000 followers)
Goal: “A good portion of my content is about real estate in the Charlotte market, specifically, and then another part of it is kind of tips for real estate agents. So I kind of serve two different communities. I’d say probably half my followers are real estate agents across the country and then the other half are people local to Charlotte, so that kind of drives the content that I make. I kind of try to hit both of them and sprinkle in some personal things, here and there.”
Growth spurt: “I didn’t set out to make TikTok to be something. I just kinda started doing it during the pandemic … I made a video and I was honestly complaining about the real estate market and how crazy it was back in 2021 when my client was making a crazy high offer on a house in Plaza Midwood and it took off. It had 1.6 million views. Then I started to get leads from it and I was like ‘Wow, okay. I didn’t anticipate this to be a lead generation source for me’ but that’s kind of what it’s turned into.”
Preferences: “TikTok is really the main form of social media that I post on and that I market to … I just think that TikTok has a lot more power in the fact that you can show your personality … I think it’s just made a difference for me in providing the value upfront before people reach out to me for business.”
Sweet spot: “From the real estate perspective, there’s so many people that are moving here from out of state and that’s what is really cool about the power of TikTok is that it allows me to market outside of this area. In making TikTok videos, it’s almost like a video resume of what I know and my experiences. So, I’ve had clients that reach out to me that I haven’t talked to before and they’re like ‘Oh hey. I’ve been following you on TikTok for a long time. I’ve followed you on your house-buying journey, you know, I followed you through this event, your wedding, all this stuff and so they know my life story before I’ve even had a conversation with them, but I think it like helps build rapport on the front end instead of just reaching out to somebody you saw on a Google ad.”
— Chyna Blackmon
The newsman: Joe Bruno
Who he is: A 31-year-old reporter for WSOC-TV “Eyewitness News” (Channel 9) in Charlotte.
Socials: @JoeBrunoWSOC9 on X, formerly known as Twitter (53,000 followers); @joebrunoclt on TikTok (13,000 followers).
Goal: “To keep people informed about what is going on in and near Charlotte. If they have a question about what is happening in their backyard, or what is happening with a major project or news story, I want them to be able to come to my Twitter and find reliable, accurate, easily presented information.”
Growth spurt: “(On X), I grew my following pretty quickly through covering the 9th District congressional election fraud scandal in 2018, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, when I was helping people get access to vaccines. ... My TikTok following shot up by the thousands overnight because of my Shanquella Robinson coverage. But I don’t use TikTok as often as I probably should.”
Preferences: ”I like words, and that’s why I feel like I do better on Twitter than maybe TikTok or Instagram, where you have to be thinking about your visuals, or shooting, or doing all these different things.”
Sweet spot: “It seems like Charlotte is a very online city. Very well-connected. It feels like the millennials of Charlotte — even if they are not consuming news in the most traditional way — are very interested in what is happening in their communities ... and I think Charlotte is a good city to be an influencer in because they are interested in that kind of content. There’s a ton going on, whether it is news, or openings of restaurants or businesses, and the city has shown it will support digital startups and digital platforms and digital creators. It doesn’t feel like we’re over-saturated yet, either. It seems like there’s room for growth.”
— Théoden Janes
The foodie fashionista: Jessica Hodnett
Who she is: A 41-year-old (in her words, “23 plus shipping and handling”) lifestyle content creator and lover of food, fashion and fun.
Socials: @thesweetseoul on Instagram (25.5k followers)
Goal: “I started my page in 2016. My fiancé and I just moved from New York City and I wanted to start an Instagram page and post about what I’m passionate about. When we started exploring all the different areas around the city, I was like, ‘Wow, I have to post about these hidden gems and see where it takes me. There are so many phenomenal businesses that need to be highlighted.’ I don’t gatekeep anything, I want the people to know.”
Growth spurt: “I can’t think of any specific post that went viral. I have a lot of posts that do well with a lot of high engagement and comments, reshares and saves. I don’t post my content to go viral. I want to impact my audience and show them my experiences with honest reviews and highlight local businesses that I love. Posts going viral is great and all. If they do, awesome. If not, I know I’m still making a huge impact for local businesses and my followers and that’s what is most important to me.”
Preferences: “My favorite platform is Instagram. It’s still great, but I loved it more back in the day when it was simple and the algorithm wasn’t annoying. The real value in Instagram to me is the ability to access authentic info quickly. Rather than Googling a business and sifting through the polished presentations, I prefer to see a real consumer experience. If I’m going to make reservations at a restaurant for the first time, I check out their Instagram page as a starting point. I look at dishes, the menu options and it’ll tell me in 3 seconds if I want to try this spot out or not.”
Sweet spot: “I think Charlotte is an amazing city and the acceleration of growth means there is always somewhere new to explore. The rapid expansion continues to increase opportunities for new and old influencers alike . When I first started my page back in 2016, there were only a few influencers in the city. Now, it seems that everyone wants to be a social media influencer and the space is more exciting than ever before. I think Charlotte is such a diverse city, that there are a lot of unique accounts for all audiences.”
— Chyna Blackmon
The spooky dude: Jason Tapp
Who he is: A 31-year-old Huntersville resident, horror fan and history buff who by day works a job in property management.
Socials: @spookyclt on TikTok (14,000 followers) and Instagram (6,500 followers).
Goal: “To chronicle all things paranormal and spooky and different about Charlotte. When I started it five or six years ago, I just wanted to do a deep dive into everything that makes Charlotte spooky and see what else there was to find. I had no idea how much there was. And ‘spooky’ is really an overarching thing. It’s not just ghosts and ghouls. It’s unique dark history. True crime is very popular right now. ... There’s no way I’m alone in wanting to learn about Charlotte history and lore.”
Growth spurt: “I made a TikTok about the history of Bank of America Stadium, and how it was built on top of what used to be Good Samaritan Hospital, which was an all-Black hospital — and even the site of, unfortunately, one of the only recorded lynchings that happened in Charlotte. I posted a video of the historic marker outside of it and kind of did an official timeline ... and got 400,000 views overnight.”
Preferences: “I’m not a social-media person overall. I actually like how unpolished a lot of my stuff looks, because it’s just me doing stuff on my phone.”
Sweet spot: “Charlotte is a small town that has all the workings of a big city. And it’s an old, historic city. You talk to a lot of people and it’s just repeated incessantly that Charlotte has no history. But unless you’re taking the time to learn the history, don’t tell me that. It does have history. It’s right in front of us — and it’s only lost if people stop talking about it.”
— Théoden Janes
And while you’re here, we’ll offer shameless plug for our accounts — we’d love to connect!
